I am playing Macbeth.
The scene I am playing are 1.6 and 1.7.
Scene Analysis
What happens in your scene? Outline the basic events.
In scene 1.6, King Duncan came to Macbeth's castle. It seems that King Duncan actually likes Macbeth and the castle. Also, Banquo thinks that Macbeth is a great person with a great castle. Most importantly, Duncan likes Lady Macbeth who is serving and entertaining him. However, Lady Macbeth is pretending that she likes Duncan. In the outside, Lady Macbeth is pretending that she is actually loyal to the King; in reality, inside Lady Macbeth is very evil and she wants to kill the King, so she can become the queen. In scene 1.7, Macbeth had his own quote in the beginning, which demonstrated that Macbeth wanted to kill King Duncan. However, Macbeth had to go against his will to do the evil deed. He was thinking whether he should kill King Duncan or not. When Macbeth was talking to himself, he decided not to murder King Duncan. The problem was that Lady Macbeth provoked Macbeth to decide to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth was being offensive to Macbeth and said that Macbeth is not a man. Therefore, Lady Macbeth stimulated Macbeth to make the evil decision. During the discussion, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth decided to use the servants to kill King Duncan. At the final decision Macbeth decides to kill Duncan.
What do you think are the key purposes of your scene? In other words, why is this scene important?
(Keep these purpose in mind as you make decisions about blocking and characterization.)
The scenes were so important because it foretold what was going to happen in the next scene. It was obvious that in the next act King Duncan was going to die. Therefore, this scene was the step for the next scene. Also, this scene demonstrated how Lady Macbeth was very important for Macbeth actions. If it was not for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth should have decided not to murder the King. The scene was very important for Macbeth because he changed to a very evil person. Macbeth is going against his judgment, which is making him to become very evil. Therefore, the transformation of Macbeth began from these scenes, which is very interesting and significant. Also, this scene demonstrated how much King Duncan trusts Macbeth, which makes it easier for Macbeth to assassinate Duncan. This scene exist to explain how Lady Macbeth's personality and characteristics. From this scene, I was able to see that Lady Macbeth had very evil plan to murder King Duncan, which Duncan does not know about. Thus, this scenes had a theme, which was duplicity of a person. This means that a person act different on the outside instead of showing the truth inside. Lady Macbeth was fooling Kind Duncan by not showing Duncan the truth. Thus, the key purposes of my scene was to demonstrate who really Lady Macbeth.
What are your reactions to this scene?
I see this scene as the beginning of the evil deeds. When one person begins to murder one person, he or she is going to kill even more people .Therefore, the scene foretold that Macbeth was going to do evil things later. Also, this scene seems very important compare to the other scenes because it was the time when Macbeth made his decision to murder King Duncan. Thus, it was very surprising for me because I did not know that Lady Macbeth played this important role in the scene. Another thing that I thought was interesting was the part where King Duncan did not notice what was happening. I was surprised that King Duncan did not know what was happening. King Duncan should have been smarter and noticed what was going on. For these reasons, I was overall surprised from this scene.
Character Report
What does Macbeth want in this scene? (What is his objective?)
During the scene I think that Macbeth's objective changes. In the beginning of scene 1.7, Macbeth was not really willing to murder King Duncan. Therefore, his objective was to be loyal to the King. He even said, "We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people" (Shakespeare 1.7.31~1.7.34). This demonstrates that Macbeth wanted to stay as what he is right now. He did not want to betray the King by killing him. However, Macbeth's thought changes because of Lady Macbeth's persuasion. She was criticizing Macbeth for not being a true man, but instead a coward. Then Macbeth was offended and he said he will do anything to become a man. Thus, Macbeth follows Lady Macbeth's objectives, which was assassinating King Duncan. Therefore, from the beginning of scene 1.7 and end of scene 1.7, Macbeth's objectives changed. Now he wants to kill the King instead of being loyal to him. To be more specific, Macbeth wanted to use the servants as the fake murderer for the crime, which makes Macbeth not guilty.
What is Macbeth's motivation for doing what he does?
There were many motivations for his objectives. However the most important was Lady Macbeth. If it was not for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth probably backed away from murder. The important quote that Lady Macbeth said was "And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would, Like the poor cat i' the adage?" A(Shakespeare 1.7.44~1.7.45). After Lady Macbeth told Macbeth this, Macbeth was offended and he said that he will do anything to become a man. This motivated Macbeth to go against his will and to murder King Duncan. Another important motivation was Macbeth's ambition. In the long quote that Macbeth speaks in the beginning of scene 1.7, he said "Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself" (Shakespeare 1.7.26). It demonstrated the Macbeth wanted the power. The last motivation, which was not in the scene was the witches. The witches told the future of Macbeth and Macbeth was very motivated by the prophecy. Therefore, he wanted to murder the King. Thus, there were many motivation that made Macbeth make the decision to murder the King. To sum up, Macbeth's final objective was to get power of Duncan, which Lady Macbeth wanted, too.
What obstacles stand in his way?
The main obstacle that stands in his way is now King Duncan who has the power of the country. Macbeth's goal was to murder King Duncan to get the power that he has. If it was not for King Duncan there should have been no murder at all for Macbeth. Another obstacle that stands in his way was his loyalty to the King. Since Macbeth was very loyal to the King, it was very difficult for him to make the right choice. However, he ignored the loyalty and planned to murder King Duncan. Also, another obstacles were the people such as Malcolm, Banquo, Lennox, and Macduff. He needed to accomplish the task without getting caught. Therefore, there are many obstacles that Macbeth has to go through to finish the objective.
What happens when your confronts these obstacles?
When Macbeth confronts the obstacles, he is very worried about what is going to happen. The obstacle such as Duncan, he didn't even really confront Duncan yet. When Macbeth confronted his loyalty to the King, he was worried and at first he decided not to do the horrible deed. Therefore, this obstacle made Macbeth weaker in heart to reach to the objective. Thus, overall whenever Macbeth confronts these obstacles, he is always nervous and worried.
Are there any distinct elements in Macbeth's way of speaking?
From how Macbeth is speaking, I can see that he is very worried and nervous about the future. Also, during the whole he only talks about one topic, which is about murdering King Duncan. Most importantly, the words that he chooses are very well chosen while he speaks. He does not use words that are very simple. It tells that Macbeth is very educated in his speaking level. Another interesting thing it that Macbeth seems to be very weak in heart. I was able to see this from the way he speaks. When Macbeth speaks, he is always in confusion whether to murder the King or not. He was not able to make a firm decision from the beginning. The tone that Macbeth uses is very prudent because he is very careful with the words that he is using. He is thinking a lot to speak in such a way.
What is your character's subtext?
During the whole scene, Macbeth is only thinking about the murder that he might do. In the first quote in scene 1.7, Macbeth only talks about the assassination. Also, he thinks about the loyalty that he has for Duncan. Another important thing that Macbeth thinks is about being a man. When Lady Macbeth criticized Macbeth for being coward, Macbeth was very worried and he thought about the importance of becoming a man. Most importantly, at the end of the scene Macbeth thought a lot about the plan that he has to accomplish, which was to murder the King. Therefore, unlike Lady Macbeth, Macbeth told the truth of himself during the whole scene. Thus, it was very easy to read what Macbeth was thinking about.
Student Reflection
1. Evaluate the performance of your group. What went well? What didn’t go well?
Overall, our group did really well performing with good cooperation. Everyone in our group had contributed to the group and brought all the props that they were assigned. Most importantly, our movement during the play was very well done because we did not make a big mistake during the whole play. The thing that we all did well was on practicing the lines that we each needed to know. Therefore, we did not have mistakes that could cause trouble. Another thing that we did well was that we acted as the character that we were assigned. For example, Hyunwoo was assigned as Lady Macbeth and he made girlish voice, which made our play much more creative. The things that did not go very well was that we were not as enthusiastic as we did on practice because everyone was very tired from the day before. If we were much more energetic, we could have done better. However, the performance went as we planned, which was good.
2. How well did you contribute to your group?
I contributed to the group by acting as Macbeth and bringing my own props. Also, I prepared for the play by practicing my lines as much as I can so that our performance can be much more fluent. Most importantly, I had came up with some ideas that could help the group. For example, I suggested that Dean could hold up the signs such as Exeunt because Dean only had few lines during the whole play. Another contribution that I made was to be familiar with my lines so that I could act and follow my acts. This supported the performance to go smoother. Therefore, I think I contributed to my group quite a lot.
3. How well did you perform as an individual?
I think that I performed well. However, I should have done better because during the play I made some stuttering sound at the end, which I regret a lot. The things that I did well was the acting. I tried to act as if I was Macbeth by giving some facial expressions and certain movements. Most importantly, I was trying to follow the tone that Macbeth was using so that it could match the performance. Overall, I tried my best to perform.
4. What could have improved your scene performance?
The things that we could have improved on was the enthusiasm. Before we were starting the play, we were all tired and didn't wanted to perform. If we had better enthusiasm, the play could have been better by having better facial expression and movements. Also, there should have been no mistakes in pronunciation while reading the play. Overall our scene performance was well done.
5. How did the scene performance help you better understand the play?
The scene performance helped me understand what really was happening during this scene. While reading the book it is a little bit difficult to understand what was happening. However, when we had scene performance, I was able to visualize what the text was saying. Most importantly, since I was annotating and paraphrasing the play, I was able to understand the scene because it seemed that I was reading a modern novel of Macbeth. Also, when I became the character, it really helped me to understand how really the character felt during the play. Therefore, scene performance was very significant to help me understand the play.
The scene I am playing are 1.6 and 1.7.
Scene Analysis
What happens in your scene? Outline the basic events.
In scene 1.6, King Duncan came to Macbeth's castle. It seems that King Duncan actually likes Macbeth and the castle. Also, Banquo thinks that Macbeth is a great person with a great castle. Most importantly, Duncan likes Lady Macbeth who is serving and entertaining him. However, Lady Macbeth is pretending that she likes Duncan. In the outside, Lady Macbeth is pretending that she is actually loyal to the King; in reality, inside Lady Macbeth is very evil and she wants to kill the King, so she can become the queen. In scene 1.7, Macbeth had his own quote in the beginning, which demonstrated that Macbeth wanted to kill King Duncan. However, Macbeth had to go against his will to do the evil deed. He was thinking whether he should kill King Duncan or not. When Macbeth was talking to himself, he decided not to murder King Duncan. The problem was that Lady Macbeth provoked Macbeth to decide to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth was being offensive to Macbeth and said that Macbeth is not a man. Therefore, Lady Macbeth stimulated Macbeth to make the evil decision. During the discussion, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth decided to use the servants to kill King Duncan. At the final decision Macbeth decides to kill Duncan.
What do you think are the key purposes of your scene? In other words, why is this scene important?
(Keep these purpose in mind as you make decisions about blocking and characterization.)
The scenes were so important because it foretold what was going to happen in the next scene. It was obvious that in the next act King Duncan was going to die. Therefore, this scene was the step for the next scene. Also, this scene demonstrated how Lady Macbeth was very important for Macbeth actions. If it was not for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth should have decided not to murder the King. The scene was very important for Macbeth because he changed to a very evil person. Macbeth is going against his judgment, which is making him to become very evil. Therefore, the transformation of Macbeth began from these scenes, which is very interesting and significant. Also, this scene demonstrated how much King Duncan trusts Macbeth, which makes it easier for Macbeth to assassinate Duncan. This scene exist to explain how Lady Macbeth's personality and characteristics. From this scene, I was able to see that Lady Macbeth had very evil plan to murder King Duncan, which Duncan does not know about. Thus, this scenes had a theme, which was duplicity of a person. This means that a person act different on the outside instead of showing the truth inside. Lady Macbeth was fooling Kind Duncan by not showing Duncan the truth. Thus, the key purposes of my scene was to demonstrate who really Lady Macbeth.
What are your reactions to this scene?
I see this scene as the beginning of the evil deeds. When one person begins to murder one person, he or she is going to kill even more people .Therefore, the scene foretold that Macbeth was going to do evil things later. Also, this scene seems very important compare to the other scenes because it was the time when Macbeth made his decision to murder King Duncan. Thus, it was very surprising for me because I did not know that Lady Macbeth played this important role in the scene. Another thing that I thought was interesting was the part where King Duncan did not notice what was happening. I was surprised that King Duncan did not know what was happening. King Duncan should have been smarter and noticed what was going on. For these reasons, I was overall surprised from this scene.
Character Report
What does Macbeth want in this scene? (What is his objective?)
During the scene I think that Macbeth's objective changes. In the beginning of scene 1.7, Macbeth was not really willing to murder King Duncan. Therefore, his objective was to be loyal to the King. He even said, "We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people" (Shakespeare 1.7.31~1.7.34). This demonstrates that Macbeth wanted to stay as what he is right now. He did not want to betray the King by killing him. However, Macbeth's thought changes because of Lady Macbeth's persuasion. She was criticizing Macbeth for not being a true man, but instead a coward. Then Macbeth was offended and he said he will do anything to become a man. Thus, Macbeth follows Lady Macbeth's objectives, which was assassinating King Duncan. Therefore, from the beginning of scene 1.7 and end of scene 1.7, Macbeth's objectives changed. Now he wants to kill the King instead of being loyal to him. To be more specific, Macbeth wanted to use the servants as the fake murderer for the crime, which makes Macbeth not guilty.
What is Macbeth's motivation for doing what he does?
There were many motivations for his objectives. However the most important was Lady Macbeth. If it was not for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth probably backed away from murder. The important quote that Lady Macbeth said was "And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would, Like the poor cat i' the adage?" A(Shakespeare 1.7.44~1.7.45). After Lady Macbeth told Macbeth this, Macbeth was offended and he said that he will do anything to become a man. This motivated Macbeth to go against his will and to murder King Duncan. Another important motivation was Macbeth's ambition. In the long quote that Macbeth speaks in the beginning of scene 1.7, he said "Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself" (Shakespeare 1.7.26). It demonstrated the Macbeth wanted the power. The last motivation, which was not in the scene was the witches. The witches told the future of Macbeth and Macbeth was very motivated by the prophecy. Therefore, he wanted to murder the King. Thus, there were many motivation that made Macbeth make the decision to murder the King. To sum up, Macbeth's final objective was to get power of Duncan, which Lady Macbeth wanted, too.
What obstacles stand in his way?
The main obstacle that stands in his way is now King Duncan who has the power of the country. Macbeth's goal was to murder King Duncan to get the power that he has. If it was not for King Duncan there should have been no murder at all for Macbeth. Another obstacle that stands in his way was his loyalty to the King. Since Macbeth was very loyal to the King, it was very difficult for him to make the right choice. However, he ignored the loyalty and planned to murder King Duncan. Also, another obstacles were the people such as Malcolm, Banquo, Lennox, and Macduff. He needed to accomplish the task without getting caught. Therefore, there are many obstacles that Macbeth has to go through to finish the objective.
What happens when your confronts these obstacles?
When Macbeth confronts the obstacles, he is very worried about what is going to happen. The obstacle such as Duncan, he didn't even really confront Duncan yet. When Macbeth confronted his loyalty to the King, he was worried and at first he decided not to do the horrible deed. Therefore, this obstacle made Macbeth weaker in heart to reach to the objective. Thus, overall whenever Macbeth confronts these obstacles, he is always nervous and worried.
Are there any distinct elements in Macbeth's way of speaking?
From how Macbeth is speaking, I can see that he is very worried and nervous about the future. Also, during the whole he only talks about one topic, which is about murdering King Duncan. Most importantly, the words that he chooses are very well chosen while he speaks. He does not use words that are very simple. It tells that Macbeth is very educated in his speaking level. Another interesting thing it that Macbeth seems to be very weak in heart. I was able to see this from the way he speaks. When Macbeth speaks, he is always in confusion whether to murder the King or not. He was not able to make a firm decision from the beginning. The tone that Macbeth uses is very prudent because he is very careful with the words that he is using. He is thinking a lot to speak in such a way.
What is your character's subtext?
During the whole scene, Macbeth is only thinking about the murder that he might do. In the first quote in scene 1.7, Macbeth only talks about the assassination. Also, he thinks about the loyalty that he has for Duncan. Another important thing that Macbeth thinks is about being a man. When Lady Macbeth criticized Macbeth for being coward, Macbeth was very worried and he thought about the importance of becoming a man. Most importantly, at the end of the scene Macbeth thought a lot about the plan that he has to accomplish, which was to murder the King. Therefore, unlike Lady Macbeth, Macbeth told the truth of himself during the whole scene. Thus, it was very easy to read what Macbeth was thinking about.
Student Reflection
1. Evaluate the performance of your group. What went well? What didn’t go well?
Overall, our group did really well performing with good cooperation. Everyone in our group had contributed to the group and brought all the props that they were assigned. Most importantly, our movement during the play was very well done because we did not make a big mistake during the whole play. The thing that we all did well was on practicing the lines that we each needed to know. Therefore, we did not have mistakes that could cause trouble. Another thing that we did well was that we acted as the character that we were assigned. For example, Hyunwoo was assigned as Lady Macbeth and he made girlish voice, which made our play much more creative. The things that did not go very well was that we were not as enthusiastic as we did on practice because everyone was very tired from the day before. If we were much more energetic, we could have done better. However, the performance went as we planned, which was good.
2. How well did you contribute to your group?
I contributed to the group by acting as Macbeth and bringing my own props. Also, I prepared for the play by practicing my lines as much as I can so that our performance can be much more fluent. Most importantly, I had came up with some ideas that could help the group. For example, I suggested that Dean could hold up the signs such as Exeunt because Dean only had few lines during the whole play. Another contribution that I made was to be familiar with my lines so that I could act and follow my acts. This supported the performance to go smoother. Therefore, I think I contributed to my group quite a lot.
3. How well did you perform as an individual?
I think that I performed well. However, I should have done better because during the play I made some stuttering sound at the end, which I regret a lot. The things that I did well was the acting. I tried to act as if I was Macbeth by giving some facial expressions and certain movements. Most importantly, I was trying to follow the tone that Macbeth was using so that it could match the performance. Overall, I tried my best to perform.
4. What could have improved your scene performance?
The things that we could have improved on was the enthusiasm. Before we were starting the play, we were all tired and didn't wanted to perform. If we had better enthusiasm, the play could have been better by having better facial expression and movements. Also, there should have been no mistakes in pronunciation while reading the play. Overall our scene performance was well done.
5. How did the scene performance help you better understand the play?
The scene performance helped me understand what really was happening during this scene. While reading the book it is a little bit difficult to understand what was happening. However, when we had scene performance, I was able to visualize what the text was saying. Most importantly, since I was annotating and paraphrasing the play, I was able to understand the scene because it seemed that I was reading a modern novel of Macbeth. Also, when I became the character, it really helped me to understand how really the character felt during the play. Therefore, scene performance was very significant to help me understand the play.